Humpty Dumpty had a Great Fall
by List Locked Lover
Summary: This world no longer held any promise for him, held not even a place for him in the grand scheme of things, he believed. Despite this, he can't help but to smile at that girl. How she grins, how she twirls and spins, laughing as if the world were all one big game. "She really is just like her." Decline of Levi, Appreciation of Lacie, Growth of Alice, Questioning of Glen .


**Yes I know his name is Levi but I'm too lazy to go back and change it. Please bear with me. And yes, we're referring to Glen here, since this is after Oswald.  
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**Quick whim fic, enjoy!  
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They're alike, he thinks, watching Alice sip her tea at their "private" snack table together. They're so very similar, as she spins across the floor to show off her braided hair. She really is her creation, he smiles when she prattles on and on about her and Oz's made up adventures. Her grin is stretched wide, and Revis wonders if her cheeks ever hurt from laughing all day and night as she makes her own discoveries. There's no doubt this girl is a piece of her.

She twirls round and round in circles, arms far out and on the tips of her toes. It was one of the few times that Revis returns "home" (it's become almost a joke to him now—this was his home, though it would never be as much of a welcome abode to come back to than when he retained the title of Glen) bearing small treats for his lab rat, the times Alice loved most. She could never hold any expectation as to what he would bring, and that had become the fun of it all.

Today he had walked directly into her imaginary castle, holding a small bag in the crook of his arm.

"You don't think you spoil her?" Glen (he easily adjusts to his new name) asks when he joins them, closely inspecting the bright white slippers on the girl's feet. No more than the tips of them grace the floor as she attempts to keep herself suspended on nothing other than her toes, still spinning in continuous loops with only small pauses in between to steady herself. Her smile has not yet faltered once.

"Am I not allowed to act as a guardian to her?" Revis replies almost furtively, his lips pursed into a tight grin without looking over at the other.

Glen's brows come together in what appears as disapproval. "You've never accepted any role as her guardian, much less have you any _right_ to be."

Alice stops moving, balancing on her heels for a moment with a giggle before running towards one of her many shelves (yet mostly empty) and picking a rabbit plush from the tallest one within her reach."You have just as much right to be her caretaker as I do; we both know that. And look," he nods at her as she holds the toy above her head, continuing her whirling about, "she's happy. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Revis rarely ever stops by Alice's domain for anything but a progress report. The occasions he happens to wander over without any intention of work, he refuses to play any of her "games" that would require him leaving the seat especially chosen for him. He had decided a while ago that the table placed near the edge of the room was reserved for those who had at one point bore Glen's soul (originally it was just Revis, but they changed the rule so that their _new_ Glen would not be upset when he was given no place to be seated) and Alice herself. In all truthfulness, though, it was merely Revis's manner of making sure a chair was always open for him, as how his body would be so quick to ache upon standing for too long.

Alice adored the idea of it all. It was something special for her; howbeit, Revis was far from her _favorite_ person. Nevertheless, he was relieved she accepted him at all and smiled as much as she did when he came to visit her. They would sit together for hours of the day, drinking tea and eating small pastries together as the child explained her thought processes and what happens every day in vivid detail. He hears of how cold Glen may be to her at times, how Vincent teases her so cruelly, and, most of all, her ever beloved blonde-braided prince.

"You've never once cared for her as a human being," Glen reports in dismay, keeping a firm, judgmental stare on the white haired man's face. "Hasn't she always been a mere tool to you?"

Revis pushes the subject aside, holding his chin atop his palm and rhythmically drumming his fingertips over his cheeks. His company across the small white table frowns at an observation made from the small action.

The other had just previously appeared as normal and human as the rest, to an extent. He was pale, but blood still ran brightly through his veins. He was tall, though his weight was evenly distributed. His figure was far from the most muscular or fit around, yet he was still in fine condition.

However, once he had been stripped of his dignified, ever proud title, the former leader's body fell to shambles. His case was a deathly white, split and blistered in multiple places, and merely hung off of the bones that were ever visible through his shirt. Bruises and large wells appeared about his form, requiring an assortment of treatments to even keep him together for as long as he may last. The tips of his fingers were merely bone, bandaged and torn, tapping across a hollow basin which used to be a risen, flushed cheek.

He wasn't living off of much for long.

He finally speaks. "She has. Nonetheless…" Revis pauses, lips spreading to show a slimmer of his teeth tinted from excessive amounts of tea. "She is a part of that girl. That girl who enjoyed life, who was so madly in love with the world…" his voice is almost dreamy as he speaks, as if retelling a miracle witnessed years ago. He always spoke of her as if he were on his deathbed right then and there. "It would be such a shame to see that go to waste, that pure outlook on the world around her, don't you think?"

Glen offers no response, keeping silent the remainder of his own stay in the tower. Revis makes no note of it, not a simple care to give. Alice continues flitting about the room. She keeps her stuffed toy held tight in her arms, her dress fluttering around her. For just a moment, he notices how her hair rises when she revolves around the center stone of the room. Jack has yet to braid it for her today and it had all fallen down naturally. It wrapped all around her, covering the space that only she took up with dark, nearly black hair encircling her. Occasionally, she must untangle from it with a chime-like laugh.

When Glen stands to leave, Revis finally speaks, though it is not directed towards him.

"She really is just like that girl."

Oswald leaves the room with a tight scowl.

"With a love so deep and so bright for this world…"

Such a passion for the bitter world that had let him fall so easily from grace.

The skin on his arm cracks.


End file.
